Max Shrager and Shannon Wise can pinpoint the exact moment they decided to start making music together. Shrager, who had already written a single for Daptone gospel act Naomi Shelton, brought Wise along to the studio one night in 2014. Shrager was laying down guitar lines, and his producer needed a voice to go along with them. Wise had never recorded before, but she gave it a shot. The result of their debut performance is also their debut single: “Strange Boy,” taken from their self-titled EP as The Shacks, which is due out October 7 via Big Crown.
It’s hard not to be skeptical of a group whose origin story is also their final product, but it would be foolish to deny the potency of The Shacks’s sound. Wise’s threadbare vocal sways across the track, a breezy doo-wop punctuated by stabs of guitar from Shrager and bolstered in the chorus by girl-group backing vocals and period-pitched organs. It’s a strange sound—the combination of heavy and thick-toned guitars with that gentle sashay should feel threatening, or dangerous, or somehow subversive. Instead, owing largely to Wise’s sincerely bright-eyed vocal, it comes across as sweet and genuine, a non-conflicted love song that just happens to be taking place in a humid and mossy universe.
You can check out the video for “Strange Boy” below, then peep the art work and track list for The Shacks.
The Shacks track list
“Strange Effect”
“Left It With The Moon”
“Orchids”
“Audrey Hepburn”
“Tidal Waves”
“Rain”
“Hands In Your Pockets”
“No Surprise” (Bonus Track)
“Strange Boy” (Bonus Track)
The Shacks is out October 7 on Big Crown.
